3-D Kinetic Cellular Automaton -- Copyright 1995 by Stewart Dickson

8) Some Examples

Wave dynamics/Newtonian Mechanics/Jell-O

The viewer/participant is presented with a plane of cells and is invited to touch the plane. The plane responds to touch like the surface of water, although the plane may be vertical. Ripples radiate from the point where it is touched and reflect from the boundaries of the plane. The cells in the sculpture are modeling actual inertia, so that the amplitude of response is proportional to the kinetic energy imparted by the touch. Multiple touches are additive. The system is damped so that it will eventually relax to a zero net energy state.

The surface of the sculpture could also display a color mapping of the wave motion on the surface. The result would be a surrealistic visual wave motion.

This piece could be physically constructed from a two-dimensional array of linear servos which move rods along lines perpendicular to the plane of the array. Only the ends of the rods toward the viewer are actually visible. Only the ends of the rods toward the viewer need be equipped with mechanical sensors optical transmitter/receivers.

An extension in three dimensions would be a structure which responds like a block of Jell-O. This would of course need to be constructed from a true three-dimensional cell.

An ever-present caveat implied in any proposal for an interactive sculpture is the danger of damage to the work from abuse by the viewing public. In a highly intelligent work such as this, there is the opportunity to build into the interface an encouragement of gentleness and a discouragement away from violence. For example, if the work is touched too hard, it might say "Ouch!". If this violence is continued, the sculpture may retract itself for self-protection and assert itself verbally. Interactive behaviours can be designed into the work to teach the viewer respect for others, if it becomes necessary.

Odd Non-Newtonian Mechanics

The mechanics of response of the sculpture need not be Newtonian, but could exhibit some alternate, unexpected behavior.

Pin Bed

A 3D impression (concave) pushed into one region of the sculpture is transmitted (convex) to another region with color. This should behave very much like a tactile transmission (telepresence) system. This system can be implemented using the same one-dimensional cells as the simpler implementation of the wave piece. Three-dimensional cells could actually wrap around a form pushed into the sculpture, transmitting a form in-the-round to another region of the sculpture. A participant touching the form transmitted to his location on the sculpture by the touch of another participant in another location, will feel the touch of the other participant and vice versa.

Of course, more than one sculpture could be networked to allow tactile communication over long distances.

Active Lego\u\s8\(rg\s12\d

The sculpture will in general have at some level the character of a continuous surface approximated by a three-dimensional array of polyhedra. Given a cell of cubic topology, the appearance of surfaces will resemble the large-scale Lego\u\s8\(rg\s12\d sculptures we have become accustomed to seeing installed in shopping malls. The difference here will be that the cells will be active, both mechanically and optically. The sculpture will be autonomously kinetic and interactive in both its form and surface coloration.

In initial demonstrations, the cells will likely be of a size on the scale of the larger-sized Duplo\u\s8\(rg\s12\d blocks.

Lego\u\s8\(rg\s12\d is also scaled to be hand-manipulated, whereas the work presented here is not. In fact the present work is intended to be composed of a vanishingly small unit, so that its discrete nature will only be evident at the microscopic scale.

3D Object Metamorphosis

The action of transforming the sculpture from one form into another will be a basic function of the cellular automaton. The precise mechanism by which this occurs, i.e., the patterns by which the cells flow across the sculpture, to make the transformation will be one of the fundamental challenges in the design of the system.

There can be pre-stored shapes which the sculpture can assume and transform one into another. The sequence of forms will have meaning and will constitute communication. The scene containing the water pseudopod entity from the film, .ul Abyss is a type of communication by metamorphosis of physical form only between two life forms unfamiliar with one another. Things of this nature should be possible using this sculpture.

Smart Clay

Given a tactile response mechanism at each cell and sufficient mobility of the cells in all directions, there should be possible a mode in which mechanical contact from without can cause the cells to be displaced, as in the manner of clay, and then maintain this displacement and provide a high-level data-interface description and interpretation of the form the sculpture has assumed. This behavior will function as a 3-D form input interface.

It should be possible at any given instant to extract from the host computer a CAD model representing the form into which the sculpture has been articulated. It should be possible to store a sequence of these models and then call them up to drive "pre-recorded" kinetic performances on the sculpture. It should eventually be possible to create an interpretive intelligence in the computer system whereby the system can glean meaning in the gestures which have been imparted to the sculpture. This kind of interaction will form the basis of a truly three-dimensional, two-way or "conversational" form of communication.

Since a pixel display mechanism will be embedded in the sculpture, the user interface to the system, in which text may appear, can be embedded in the sculpture. This may be an additional user interface method by which the viewer can change the behavior of the sculpture from one type to another.

Emergent Behavior: The Bee Hive

This idea takes its lead from David Blair's metaphor of the computer as beehive. [12] It seems likely that a cellular automaton could be programmed to carry out bee behavior in three dimensions. The capabilities described thus far could be used to create hive and honeycomb forms. In this case, a cell in the geometry of a hexagonal prism might reinforce the metaphor better than a cubic cell. A behavior must be developed to allow the cells to navigate over the surface of the "hive" in the presence of many other "bees" - all of which are in fact cells operating under different roles.

One of the most interesting behaviors might be that which takes place when a colony of bees or ants relocate their hive. This typically occurs as a swarming behavior. In the case of ants, there occur instances in which a distance must be traversed over a precipice and the ants form a large bridge over which the other members cross.

The sculptural installation could be made comprising two separate base planes, possibly parallel or perpendicular to each other. A goal-oriented cellular automaton would then be programmed such that each cell had to cooperate in reaching the distant goal of migration from one plane to the other.

<<<<< >>>>>